1. The Other Americans
— Laila Lalami
Timely, compelling, heartbreaking, tender, and my book of the month. Not sure what of Lalami’s to read next. Perhaps Conditional Citizens: On Belonging in America or The Moor’s Account.
2. Chronicle of a Blood Merchant
— Yu Hua
Wonderful, simple, rhapsodic storytelling and many of the same themes as in To Live.
5. The Bright Side of Life
— Émile Zola
A good read, though by no means one of my favorite Zola novels. I much prefer Zola when he’s writing about irredeemable murderers, as in La Bête humaine and Thérèse Raquin.
3. Lonesome Dove
— Larry McMurtry
The third installment in Larry McMurtry’s Lonesome Dove tetralogy. Again, great storytelling and character development and natural dialogue. It is a slow starter, taking a good 300 pages before anything notable happens.
4. Streets of Laredo
— Larry McMurtry
The fourth and final installment in the Lonesome Dove tetralogy. It takes a couple of hundred pages to get going, but thereafter it’s quite the page-turner. My clear favorite of the series, however, is the first installment, Dead Man’s Walk.
6. The Seventh Day
— Yu Hua
A short read. Especially loved the first half.
Books on my January TBR include part 3 of On the Calculation of Volume by Solvej Balle, The Last Wolf by László Krasznahorkai, and The Awakening by Kate Chopin.
Remarkable Renaissance Books
My new book Remarkable Renaissance Books is now available at all good bookstores. Alternatively, but it at Bookshop.org or Amazon.com.
